Albanian towns spend budgets on staff instead of projects

Despite bigger budgets, many smaller Albanian towns are spending most of their money on wages rather than local development.

A new 2025 report shows small and medium towns now spend over 60 percent of their funds on salaries and daily running costs.

Nationwide, councils spent 92.4 billion lek last year. Over 40 billion went to pay staff, leaving just 23.2 billion for new infrastructure. Experts warn this leaves little room to actually grow local economies.

Larger cities manage a better balance. Tirana invested 40 percent of its budget into new projects, while Durrës and Elbasan spent about 30 percent.

Officials blame the high wage bills on a 2015 reform, which expanded council territories and moved thousands of state workers to local payrolls.